Our first Lab Notes report of 2024 has items on a billion-dollar Big Pharma deal, a $4 million stock sale, a cell therapy setback and more.
Here's the roundup:
AstraZeneca
The Big Pharma company that has its North American commercial business headquarters in Wilmington made a bigger push into the cell therapy arena by entering into a definitive agreement to acquire Gracell Biotechnologies (NASDAQ: GRCL) of China in a deal valued at up to $1.2 billion.
The proposed deal values Gracell at $10 per American depository share, which represents a premium of 61.6% from its closing price on Dec. 22.
The agreement, which comes less than two weeks after AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) entered into a separate agreement to buy Seattle vaccine developer Icosavax (NASDAQ: ICVX) for $1.1. billion, also includes potential contingent value payments.
The acquisition, if finalized, will add several experimental therapies to AstraZeneca's portfolio of new drug candidates, including a potential treatment for multiple myeloma as well as other hematologic malignancies and autoimmune diseases.
Gracell is focused on developing autologous CAR T-cell therapies, a type of cell therapy created by reprogramming a patient’s immune T cells to target disease-causing cells. The company’s proprietary Gracell FasTCAR platform is designed to significantly shorten manufacturing time and enhance T cell fitness, to potentially improve the effectiveness of such treatments.
The transaction, which still requires Gracell shareholder approval, is expected to close in the first quarter of the year.
Trevena
The Chesterbrook biopharmaceutical company raised $4 million through two concurrent private stock placements.
Trevena (NASDAQ: TRVN) sold 2.8 million shares of common stock and associated warrants at 70 cents per share. The company also entered into a definitive agreement for the immediate exercise, for cash, of existing warrants covering the purchase of up to an aggregate of 2.9 million shares of common stock issued in July 2022 and November 2022 at a reduced exercise price of 70 cents per share in exchange for the issuance of unregistered new warrants to purchase up to 5,868,760 shares of common stock.
Trevena plans to use the proceeds to advance the development of its new drug pipeline targeting central nervous system disorders.
H.C. Wainwright & Co. served as the exclusive placement agent for the offerings.
Iovance
The Food and Drug Administration placed a clinical hold on the California biotechnology company’s drug study for its experimental lung cancer therapy because of a patient death potentially linked to the treatment.
Iovance (NASDAQ: IOVA), based in San Carlos, has a cell therapy manufacturing plant at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
The new drug candidate, LN-145, is being studied in patients who have progressed on or after chemotherapy and anti-PD-1 therapy for advanced (unresectable or metastatic) non-small cell lung cancer who received at least one line of an FDA-approved targeted therapy if indicated by other actionable tumor mutations.
Such patients have a poor prognosis, limited treatment options, and a real-world overall survival of less than six months, according to the company.
Iovance will pause enrollment for new patients during the clinical hold. Patients previously treated with LN-145 in the trial will continue to be monitored and followed according to the trial protocol.
Immunome
The biotechnology company with operations in Seattle and Exton entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement to acquire a collection of antibody-related assets and materials from Atreca (NASDAQ: BCEL) of San Carlos, California, for $5.5 million upfront and up to $7 million in conditional drug development milestone payments.
Clay B. Siegall, CEO of Immunome (NASDAQ: IMNM), said the deal will expand the company’s toolbox and complement its existing programs targeting cancer.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions including Atreca stockholder approval.
Quick Hits
Radnor-based NRx Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: NRXP) said Janet Rehnquist, former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was elected to the company's board of directors where she will chair the compliance and the nominating committees. … Cherry Hill-based life sciences company Vyant Bio (OTC: VYNT) filed a certificate of dissolution following the sale of substantially all of its assets. The dissolution became effective Dec. 29 , at which time the company's stock ceased trading publicly. Vyant estimates that it will make its first liquidation payment, if any, in the fourth quarter of 2024.
